“My prediction for the rest of the year is for gold to go higher, but in a choppy fashion. The last time that we talked, gold, silver, and a large number of resource equities had just experienced a quick run-up. At the time, I suggested that the market probably needed to ‘back-and-fill.’ Sure enough, it did.
“Now, the market’s taken another leg up. It probably needs to ‘back-and-fill’ again. This pattern will likely continue in the next 12 months. We’re going to see the market alternately lurch ahead, and then fall back and consolidate the gains. We’re going to be in a recovery – which will look relatively flat and choppy, punctuated with 10 percent declines. That is pretty much the way these markets work.
“This is good. In fact, I believe the market is in very good shape right now. Nobody has any expectations for resources, which makes it much easier for the market to surprise to the upside. It looks like we put in the bottom last July, meaning that gold and silver, along with precious metals equities markets, should generally be higher, in a sort of ‘staccato’ motif.” – Rick Rule

It was one of the largest three week Commitment of Trader changes in memory for gold, as more than 97,000 commercial contracts were sold on a $70 gold price rally since June 10. Most notable was that the raptors accounted for 80,000 contracts of the commercial selling and the technical funds 88,000 contracts of the buy side. Never have two distinct groups controlled so much of the positioning. 
 
In COMEX silver futures, the 9,100 contract increase put the total commercial net short position at 52,000 contracts. This is highest level of commercial shorts in COMEX silver since December 18, 2012. I hope everyone knows that “highest” here means, in COT terms, most bearish. I must point out that in December 2012 silver was around $34; whereas today the price is near $21 and below the cost of production for many primary silver miners. – Silver analyst Ted Butler

“The system we have now is one in which the Fed decides, through a Politburo of planners sitting in Washington, how much liquidity is necessary, what the interest rate should be, what the unemployment rate should be, and what economic growth should be.
“There is no honest pricing left at all anywhere in the world because central banks everywhere manipulate and rig the price of all financial assets. We can’t even analyze the economy in the traditional sense anymore because so much of it depends not on market forces but on the whims of people at the Fed.” – David Stockman

Despite not looking for a conspiracy (and not wanting to find one), the greater weight and flow of the evidence convinces me one exists in silver. To be clear, my distinction is that it is not just a small group of traders on the COMEX involved in a secret plot to suppress silver prices, but has now grown to include the CME Group and the CFTC. Since my long-term understanding of the CFTC is that it has been, perhaps, the weakest and most ineffective federal agency of all, it is most likely that the CFTC’s inclusion involves more important federal agencies, specifically, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
First, let me make the point that I see the conspiracy as having started when JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns in 2008, but really kicked into overdrive a little more than three years ago around the time silver reached $49. Currently the conspiracy to control and manipulate silver prices has never been stronger or easier to prove. In other words, while I can date the ongoing silver manipulation on the COMEX to 1983, it did not become an organized conspiracy involving the U.S. Government until 2008. Moreover, I don’t believe that the regulators’ involvement was well-planned and deliberate from the start; it was more a case of bungling a set of emergency circumstances and a subsequent cover up. – Silver analyst Ted Butler

I have included four excellent articles on inflation in the Featured Articles Section that are all worth reading. Take some time over the weekend and check them out.